The petrified prime minister was ridiculed for banning rival Andy Burnham from standing in a by-election because it was considered too costly.

Now cowardly and cornered Sir Keir has been given a prophecy in the shape of a letter from his own MPs objecting to the decision.

Like much of the rest of the country the disgruntled group think barring Burnham from contesting the vacant Gorton and Denton seat is something from the playbook of Kim Jong Un or Vladimir Putin.

The pathetic attempt to protect the PM has handed Reform UK “a gift” because polling suggests Burnham was Labour’s best bet of winning.

Instead the loyalist National Executive Committee – occupied by Leftist nodding donkeys and Sir Keir himself – lamely said allowing the Greater Manchester Mayor to contest the seat would have diverted resources.

It is an excuse so pitiful that it is indefensible.

The discontent is now deafening and with MP signatories coming from all sections of the party it proves Starmer and his socialist agenda is crumbling.

The letter, also signed by Labour peers, is a warning about what is to come and notes the decision to block Burnham had caused a “huge amount of anxiety and anger” among colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party and members across the country.

The tipping point will come on May 7 when 66 local council elections are being held in England. It would have been more but 29 have been postponed until at least 2027 under the excuse of “reorganisation”. The reality is Sir Keir is quaking in his boots.

In addition all seats in both Holyrood, the Scottish Parliament, and the Senedd, the Welsh Parliament, are being contested.

Fury has erupted in areas where elections have been postponed because some 4 million people are being denied the right to vote.

It all adds up to a disgraceful dissection of democracy.

Want the real reason Sir Keir and his stormtroopers blocked Burnham?

Those who signed the letter – sent to the PM and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood who chairs the NEC – said the decision risks sending a message that the Labour Party does not respect devolution and local leadership.

Burnham, they say, has been one of the most visible defenders of devolution and loudest champions of placed-based power.

It is little wonder he was blackballed – he threatened Labour’s communist high command.

Left-wing MP Ian Lavery said the Labour party “risks dying with Keir Starmer” as he launched a broadside at the incompetent PM.

He said: “The claim that blocking the Mayor of Greater Manchester from seeking selection in a parliamentary by‑election will prevent a ‘Westminster psychodrama’ is, frankly, discombobulating.

“Far from calming anything, it reveals a profound nervousness at the very top of the party.”

Roman leader Julius Caesar was cautioned about what would befall him – the Ides of March – but he failed to heed the warning and was murdered on March 15, 44 BCE.

Sir Keir now looks certain to be skewered by one of his own – and the list of potential assassins grows longer by the day.